Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/53322
FROM THE TRENCHES 3rd: you should have a portal. Besides the effi ciency of creating fi nal work products in an electronic format, you have a secure way for clients to pick up and drop off documents for your work together. Portals can be part of your practice management or document management systems, or they can be standalone utilities to get the job done. Possible solutions for providing portals for your firm include: Accoun- tantsWorld's CyberCabinet, Thomson Reuters' NetClient CS, SmartVault, ShareFile, eFileCabinet SecureDrawer, Doc.It's Web Client Portal, CCH ProSystem fx Portal, T omson Reuters' GoFileRoom Portal, Conarc iChannel, Autonomy Worksite and SharePoint. T ese portals should be integrated into your web site as we have pointed out in prior articles. 4th: consider an electronic workfl ow strategy. Automating the procedures that you have documented in a debriefi ng can bring consistency and controls to your Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpapracticeadvisor fi rm. T e most common reason for not implementing workflow is too much visibility and partners not being able to do as they please. T e most common reasons to implement an electronic workfl ow are: reducing the amount of processing time for any task, easily being able to see the status of jobs by authorized managers, sharing work among locations, and creating consistent steps that are followed. Options for providing electronic workfl ow for your fi rm include: Offi ce Tools Professional, XCM Solutions, Doc. It, CCH WorkStream, T omson Reuters FirmFlow, and SharePoint. 5th: remember to consider innovative col- laboration tools. For example, New River Innovation's product Beyond415 can help with IRS Tax notices. The area of 1040 workpaper automation is maturing nicely with products like CCH Scan, Drake's Copanion, T omson Reuter's Source Document Processing or TaxSort and SurePrep's SPBinder or 1040Scan. Collaborative accounting continues to improve with changes in Intuit's QuickBooks Online Accountant, AccountantsWorld's Accounting Relief, T omson Reuters' Accounting CS or Xero. You'll see changes in engagement managers this year as well. Taking your paperless implementation to the next level Going beyond a simple starting imple- mentation for paperless takes initiative and the ability to take a project to a new, bet er level. "Paperless 2.0" moves beyond merely storing and retrieving documents. It examines how information of all types fl ows through an organization, seeks to revamp and automate workfl ow, data entry, and document management whenever practical. T e profi t and effi - ciency gains are far greater than with Paperless 1.0. Begin to picture where your organiza- tion is with respect to: Collaborative accounting, billing, business development, engagement processing, forms, vendor bills, time sheets, pto requests, approvals, email archiving, purchase orders, employee expense reports, automated tax return processing, and exchanging client data via portals. How many more areas can you name that you would improve? Choose your highest value services to improve fi rst, and then look for the areas where you think you have the greatest ineffi ciencies. Improving the top 20 percent and the bot om 20 percent processes can make you far more eff ective and effi cient quickly. Before you start, list all of the areas you intend to improve, estimate the amount of time needed, any hard costs and the probable gain to be realized. Adjust your list to select and refi ne the tasks with the most impact. Ask for assistance from key managers, and plan for training for staff at all levels once the procedure has been updated and placed into your system, manual or automated. Review the outcome of the revision, and refi ne as necessary. Repeat on other items on the list. T e typical accounting fi rm will have 15-25 procedures to refine, where industry businesses will have 75-150. One fi nal planning note: Don't confuse efficiency for effectiveness. Consider your fi rm's business plan and strategy to provide excellent, profi table client service. Look at revolutionary as well as evolu- tionary ideas to improve your firm. Sometimes stopping something that you are doing can be the most eff ective change of all. Gaining the insight to identify, create and provide a client service that has high value to the client can be a real game changer for your fi rm. Look for and eliminate unnecessary, redundant work. Look for opportunities to work smarter, not harder. Wouldn't you like to make signifi cant improvements for your clients, your fi rm and yourself? T e reward is great. Connect with CPA Practice Advisor Twitter: www.twitter.com/cpapracadvisor LinkedIn: www.linkedin/in/cpapracticeadvisor February 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 19